 Artist Profile:
Amy Ray
As a songwriter, vocalist,
multi-instrumentalist, producer and activist, Amy Ray
belongs to a select group of artists who pursue challenges
as much for themselves as for their music. Like all of us,
she lives in a world that’s constantly changing. But
rather than adapt, Ray takes pleasure in bending change to
suit her world view.
Nowhere is this approach more evident
than in her role as the owner of the Daemon
Records label. Ray runs Daemon as a non-profit whose
goal is to support artists whose music and vision may not be
in-step with commercial tastes. Established in 1990, Daemon
is a trailblazing champion of indie and underground artists.
Throughout the label’s history, Ray allows artists to
create and control their own recordings. And in fact, the
label’s mission statement reads like a rallying cry: As
Indie As We Want To Be!
To be certain, her non-stop success as
an Indigo Girl raises the label’s profile and helps her
raise funds to fuel Daemon’s mission. She openly admits
that her first Daemon solo album, Stag, (released in 2001)
was as much an attempt to raise operating capital as it was
an opportunity for her to showcase the rougher and grittier
side of her personality.
Ray’s latest album Prom
(slated for release on April 12) includes songs whose
stories focus on dislocated high school youths who are
either edging their way toward doom or graduating to
adulthood. Since Ray based the characters and situations on
her own high school experiences, many of the songs convey
the same raw intensity and inevitability present in Larry
Clark’s photo essays. Though unlike Clark’s
disturbing, frozen images, Ray has the advantage and the
power of music to keep her tales engaging and accessible.
In her first Atlas Plugged interview,
Ray offers insight into her role as the owner of a
trend-setting, innovative record label. And she talks at
length about one of her more recent signings -- Girlyman,
a winner in the 3rd annual Independent
Music Awards who she discovered while serving as one of
several celebrity artists who helped evaluate the final
round categories.
Atlas
Plugged: What do
you want to hear when you’re considering signing an artist
or band to Daemon?
Amy
Ray:
As far as the
demos go, I'm super-critical. So there's the pile of them
that I enjoy listening to just because they're fun. Then
there's the pile that I think, there's something magical
about this. It's going somewhere. They definitely have
something really compelling about them and [the artists] are
driven by something other than the industry or ambition.
AP:
How do you know it when the real thing comes along?
AR:
For me, Girlyman was something that I kept picking back up
again. That's the sign that it's something magical. It’s
when I keep picking it back up again, and I can't tell why.
I can't tell what it is about it that I like or anything. I
just know that I keep putting it back in my CD-player. Out
of 100 demos, I get probably a couple that are like that.
I may go through 400 demos before I end up
having six records that I want to put out, that I think are
amazing, and I get frustrated if WFUV
won't play them, or if KBCO
won't play them, or some other big station, like WXPN.
But a lot of times, those stations will
come on board and try to put something out for a little
while, just to give it another shot.
AP: What
other artists have you recently signed?
AR:
I heard this Americana record, and I immediately took it to
Daemon and put it out this past December. The quality of it
is like, it should be playing on commercial Triple-A Radio.
Why isn't it? Because there is so much out there and this
band didn't necessarily know what to do with themselves and
how to get it out there.
I think that people feel overwhelmed.
There is so much great technology for getting your music out
there, that in a way it's hard to. Artists still don't know
what direction to take, or how to make it happen, or how to
solicit themselves or their music.
AP:
What's the name of that Americana band?
AR:
They're called The
Great Unknowns. [LAUGHS] And they would have remained
that way probably.
AP: Yes,
a self-fulfilling prophecy.
AR:
They just love music, and they made this brilliant record,
and three of the people in the band were Harvard students,
and the other one, is like a curator at a museum in South
Georgia. They are really brainy, incredible
songwriter/musician people who are just satisfied with
making incredible records.
They are compelled by the music. They're
going to do it, whether they're successful or not.
AP:
In terms of Girlyman, what was it that you heard, apart from
the songs? Were there any other components to the band’s
sound and music that struck your fancy?
AR:
Well, it's really the blend, I have to say. They have a
certain kind of harmony. I remember when I heard The
Roaches, it reminds me of the same thing, where there's a
little bit of a choir element in there, you can tell that
somebody in the band has been classically trained. Either
that, or they've all sung in choirs.
[Their songs] move in a way that is like a
movement of music, you know? And that is the first thing
that struck me, and then as I learned more about them, I was
attracted to the difference in their personalities, the
element of their identities, and their gender. How their
genders create a real identity.
They sound like an organ, and it sounds
like they’re related to each other. It’s the way their
voices blend.
AP:
Now that Girlyman is on Daemon, and the label’s involved
with putting out the "official" release of the
first album, what is the next step in their relationship
with the label?
AR:
The way we do it, I called them and asked what their plans
were. They were like, "What we'd really like to do is
have you work on this first record." I was like,
"Well, I don't think you need me for the first record
because you guys have already sold 5,000 records on your
own." And they were like, "Yeah, but we want you
to be involved." So I made an agreement with them that
I would work on the first record if they gave me a second
record, because that's what I really wanted from them, was
their next record.
AP:
Did the band feel that Daemon legitized the first album?
AR:
I loved the record, but I wanted to make sure I could do the
next one because this one has already laid groundwork.
They've done all the work, you know? And they've sold
themselves to a large fan base, whatever, and have done all
this footwork, and toured so much, and done a great job, and
they didn't really need me, but they wanted to go ahead and
start the relationship if I was going to do the second
record.
So that's the agreement that we made, and
it made a lot of sense. Because I'm getting used to how they
work. I know radio-wise, I did a little bit of promotion
myself on this record, to get a feel for who is already
receptive to them, and put out phone calls and e-mails and
stuff. And press-wise, I can tell who is receptive.
So we’ll be able to focus really well on
what they've already built when we release the second
record, while filling in what they haven't done.
AP:
When they’re out on the road with Indigo Girls, how do the
Girlyman band members make the most of an incredible
opportunity to engage your audiences?
AR:
After their set, they sign and sell CDs and they collect
names, email addresses, and just talk to people. They're
very good at that and it's funny, out of an audience of 1500
people, a show, they'll sell a couple hundred CDs. Those are
amazing numbers.
If a band can sell 200 CDs at an Indigo
Girl show, that's phenomenal. Just out on tour with us, they
sold a couple of thousand CDs. It's remarkable.
AP:
You were very kind to allow them to make the association
with Daemon while they're out on tour with the Indigo Girls.
AR:
Yes. It's an audience that's going to be receptive to them
because they're already receptive to harmony, because that's
what me and Emily do, but they are different enough from us
so that by the time we play, you're not sick of hearing
harmony. [LAUGHS] There's a similarity to us, I think in the
way that they've built their audience and what motivates
them to do what they do.
But there's a difference. Three people
sound different than two people. Later in our set, Emily and
I bring them out and meld [our harmonies], and at the end we
do a song, like a five-part a cappella song, together.
It really showcases them because they just
bring something to the table that we haven't heard in a long
time.
AP:
What song did you do together?
AR:
We did an a cappella five-part song by Sibelius. The words
are about peace. Wishing peace for other countries besides
your own. It's sort of against nationalism.
Something to add about Girlyman that I
just noticed -- because they've been playing some of their
new songs that are going to be on the new record which will
be out on May 24 -- is the harmonies are the thing that
struck me at first. Then when I saw them live, I realized
their instrumentation is so good.
AP:
Their musicianship?
AR:
It’s much more complex. They're out there, playing banjos
and mandolins and baritone guitars and regular guitars and
drums. It's all acoustics but it's even more complex than
the instruments on their last album.
So I think one of the important things for
any band, is to evolve. And really challenge yourselves
constantly from one record to the next, and I think they're
doing that, so it's good.
AP:
Well, how do you feel that you and Emily have done that?
AR:
We've learned instruments all along the way. Emily will
start playing piano. I picked up the mandolin a long time
ago, and harmonica, and she picked up the banjo. Then we
might play a bouzouki or we might high-string a guitar.
We've learned new tunings, constantly challenging ourselves.
But the most important thing is trying to be a better
songwriter.
In our arrangements, our harmonies, we pay
a lot of attention to what we've done before and compare it
to what we're doing now to try to make sure we're not just
falling back on the same old tricks. We explore new ways of
singing together, without doing it just for the sake of
doing it, you know, but really trying to find meaning that's
magical.
AP:
Are there any contemporary influences that you listen to and
say, oh, that artist is really taking songwriting in a new
direction, or they're taking production into a new direction
and you'd like to investigate that area as well?
AR: Yes,
I mean it's funny because usually it's music that sounds
nothing like us, but gives us ideas. Outkast
is one. The way they layer their harmonies and their vocals
over each other, or they call and answer -- things like
that. Cat
Power is someone who does a lot of interesting things in
production who works in the acoustic arena a lot. I often
listen to her for ideas when we're making a record.
AP:
Right.
AR: A
kind of band like The
Distillers, this punk band, I go to them for lyrics. A
lot of times I'll listen to the way she [Distiller’s front
woman, Brody Armstrong] talks. I look at the way she might
have written a political song, because political songs are
hard song to write.
|
